specimen 復習

かぶってしまいましたが，来年３月から６月にかけて東京上野の国立科学博物館で開催される「大英自然史博物館展」で始祖鳥の化石が展示されます。

Fossil of world’s 1st bird to make Japan debut

LONDON — A world tour of precious specimens from the Natural History Museum in London, including a fossil of the earliest known bird, will start in Japan, the museum has announced.

It will be the first time for a specimen of Archaeopteryx to be shown in Japan. The bird lived in the later stage of the Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago.

The world premiere of the exhibition, titled “Treasures of the Natural World: Best of London’s Natural History Museum,” will be held at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno, Tokyo, from March through June next year, sponsored by The Yomiuri Shimbun and others. After showing in Tokyo, the exhibition will tour around the world.

Multiple Archaeopteryx fossils have been found, but the museum’s fossil represents the first discovery of the bird’s skeleton. It revealed for the first time that Archaeopteryx had reptilian features such as a long tail in addition to such avian elements as feathers.

In addition to the Archaeopteryx fossil, about 180 items selected from the London museum’s enormous collection of over 80 million items are scheduled to be exhibited, including Charles Darwin’s autographed manuscript of “On the Origin of Species.”

http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002980323

今回取り上げる表現は、“specimen”です。『ウィズダム英和辞典』(第３版、三省堂)を引いたところ、「(動物・植物などの)標本；(血液・尿などの)サンプル」とありました。

Collins Dictionary.comでは、“the whole or a part of an organism, plant, rock, etc, collected and preserved as an example of its class, species, etc”と定義されていました。

ちなみに、口語表現として“specimen”を用いたときに、形容詞を伴って「…な人、…なやつ」という意味になるようです(『ウィズダム英和辞典』)。辞書には“a superb physical specimen”「見事な肉体の持ち主」という例が示されていました。

「大英自然史博物館展」では、有名なチャールズ・ダーウィンの「種の起源」の自筆原稿なども展示されるようです。興味があるので、行ってみたいと思いました。(Blue Sky)